For Nurse Appreciation Week, we are recounting the stories and struggles of a few of our nurses who care for us, especially during the current health crisis.

Nurses have been ranked as the most trusted profession for the past 15 years but have not always been appreciated for the work they do and for the care they provide. While physicians diagnose, prescribe, and treat, it is the nurses who provide continuous care and monitor patients, attending to their needs and keeping them as comfortable as possible.

Grey’s Anatomy and Hollywood portrayals don’t come close to what nurses endure and provide. Now, under the current healthcare crisis, we are more aware of how indispensable frontline personnel are, as doctors and nurses work around-the-clock under what would otherwise be normal on a battlefield. And they would be the first to admit that this is indeed a war against an invisible and deadly foe, against which we have few adequate weapons. They risk their own lives daily and go home for a few hours to rest, anxiety-ridden that they may bring the virus home unknowingly and despite stringent precautions, and infect their loved ones. And then they return the next day...and the next.

This is not the kind of risk or work nurses signed up for; yet, hundreds of thousands of them come to work every day as they recognize their duty and ability to save lives. Our own Ismaili nurses are a part of this army of healthcare soldiers and we recognize them for their selfless acts of heroism at this time.

Khairunissa Meghani moved from Karachi to Dallas in 1995 and recalls that as a child she played a nurse with her dolls, reflecting her caring personality and desire to help others. “Growing up I would go to vaccination and wellness clinics for kids as well as adults,” she remarks. ”In these clinics, I encountered volunteers devoting their time and knowledge to improve the quality of life for others,” she adds. She knew then, that she wanted to be a nurse or a doctor and help the underprivileged or ill.

After graduating as a Registered Nurse, Khairunissa made a commitment to herself to be actively engaged in the service, and was involved with the Health Board, volunteered as a nurse for Camp Mosaic, and facilitated medical supplies during the Golden Jubilee Darbar in San Antonio. During the Diamond Jubilee, she was assigned to the sickbay, caring for Jamati members with medical needs. “To be part of such a team during this Diamond Jubilee was a personal fulfillment beyond my imagination,” she says. She is still an active Health Board Member for Access in the Central Region. For the past 15 years, she has done bedside nursing in various hospital departments and is pursuing a Master’s in Nursing.

With the COVID-19 crisis, Khairunissa’s life has changed. “I had a choice of getting back into working in the ICU, with the unit mostly focused on treating critical patients affected by COVID-19 and requiring ventilators, “she says, and “I couldn't help but come forward. I must say these are unprecedented times.” With so little known about the virus and how to treat it, let alone prevent it, nursing is not a comfortable profession at this time, even though it is comforting to patients.

Khairunissa explains: “I have never seen anything like this before. I wish I could say I am not scared of being on the frontline. Even though I am taking the necessary precautions, I wake up with fear and being anxious about how my day is going to be. The only thing that has kept me going is my faith, and its underlying ethic of the desire to serve humanity at large.”

“The feeling of being able to serve the Imam and the Jamat and humanity at large is unshakeable, especially during these challenging and unprecedented times,” remarks Khairunissa. She believes “[...] that each one of us, in our own ways and capacities has the ability to be able to serve and help the Jamat as well as the communities in which one lives. This is the ethic of seva that has informed us and is part of our community’s DNA. If there’s any time to serve, to help, to render aid, to comfort, to care, to love, it is now.”

This attitude is shared by those in the healthcare field, and it is appropriate to recognize the dedication and commitment illustrated by nurses to their profession and to the community.